Get Artsy this August at Arts Jam Studio Sessions!
safeword, with community partner The Gilbert Centre, present a three-part, online series of visual arts workshops called Arts Jam Studio Sessions!
In conjunction with our 2SLGBTQ+ Arts Jam, we’ve invited three, incredible visual artists to lead creative and interactive workshops for queer and trans youth!
The Studio Sessions are FREE and will be held online via Zoom.
This series is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the City of Barrie. Learn more about our three upcoming events and register below!
Arts Jam Studio Sessions:
En Tze Loh
Wednesday, August 10th
7pm EDT
Join us for a Studio Session with multi-disciplinary artist En Tze Loh to explore multiple artistic mediums and entrepreneurship. From tattoos, graphic design, illustration, filmmaking to an apparel brand, learn tools, techniques and ask En Tze questions to help create your own signature brand and monetize your art!
En Tze Loh (they/them) is a queer & non-binary Malaysian multi-disciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. Starting as a tattoo artist at 18, they have since ventured into many different art forms including filmmaking, production design, illustration, graphic design, as well as running their own queer goth art & apparel brand GRRRL Sells. GRRRL Spells was featured in Etsy’s 2021 journal “7 Incredible Queer-Owned Shops to Know” and has achieved over 17,000 sales on the platform. Recently, they were the illustrator for Autostraddle’s S L I C K series and Q-Summit’s anthology of queer poetry. They have worked with Paprika Festival creating their program in 2020 & 2021, as well as Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, creating a mural in conjunction with their winter program & Rhubarb Festival and poster designs for Queercab in 2021. As a lover of queer events and community, they have designed many posters for queer events in the city and have also co-organized a few, including Lunar New Queer: a queer Asian drag and burlesque show (2020), Invisible Footprints 0.3 Symposium (2020), and the Non-binary Art Fair (2018), and hopes to do more.
Arts Jam Studio Sessions:
Rihkee Strapp
Sunday, August 14th
2pm EDT
Join us for a Studio Session with multi-disciplinary artist Rihkee Strapp to explore the history and contemporary expressions of Woodland Pop Art through a variety of creative mediums. The session will include sharing techniques, activities and the opportunity to ask Rihkee questions about their art!
Rihkee Strapp is an Ayakwew Red River Metis multi-disciplinary artist raised in Northern Ontario by nohkum’s dial-up internet and its dark vistas. Rihkee is an alumni of the Studio [Y] systems leadership fellowship at the MaRS Discovery District. Their highly collaborative work re-appropriates pop-culture, myth and nostalgia, playing with concepts of time and technology often using humour and character to animate their ideas.
Arts Jam Studio Sessions:
Sean George
Wednesday, August 24th
7pm EDT
Join us for a Studio Session with multidisciplinary artist, art educator and cultural worker Sean George to explore queer culture, blackout poetry and collaging. Learn more and ask questions about contemporary and historical queer artists and express yourself by participating in a live activity!
Sean George is a multidisciplinary artist, art educator, and cultural worker. He was born in Brooklyn, NY, and has lived in Trinidad and Tobago, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto and Barrie. He presently divides his time between the semi-rural community of Long Sault, and Barrie,Ontario. George utilizes photography, writing, installation, drawing, and performance. George's work challenges the status quo, whilst aligning with the elements of art and design. He has exhibited at the grunt gallery, Helen Pitt Gallery, Interurban, and Evergreen Cultural Centre, (Vancouver and Coquitlam,BC). In 2021 his largest work - Monument, Memories and Missing Passages, was exhibited at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, ON. He has taught at Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC - Continuing Studies, and Design History at The Art Institute of Vancouver. He is currently working with Making Change - Community Education - Intro to Anti-Black Racism a project in classrooms across Simcoe County. In 2021 he co-produced with Theatre by the Bay, Lost Heroes of Oro written and directed by Alinka Angelova, that tells the story of Black Canadian hero, Richard Pierpoint, and the establishment of the Oro African Church, in SImcoe County. In May of 2023 George will have a solo exhibit at the Cline House Gallery in Cornwall, Ontario.
